Newbie

Hi, I have just bought a marine tank from a freind of mine, I have always wanted a Marine tank but just never got around to getting one till yesterday. It has live rock inside and snails no fish at the moment as he neglected it for the last sixz months and it is over run by Hair Algea, but I will get there. The tank has been setup for the last three years so it is a established tank.

There are five small tanks in the back. it runs from the tank to the first one that has got the Skimmer, from there is goes to the next one that has got some filter floss ontop of crushed corel from there it goes to anaother tank with crushed corel. The forth tank has a bit of sand at the bottom then it runs to the return pump and back into the tank

Has you'r Friend always had the Crushed Coral...? Did he have Algae problems..?..Or did you add that when you took over the Tank...? Do you have Aragonite in the Display Tank...sand or crushed Coral...?

God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, COURAGE to change the things I can and the WISDOM to know the difference ...

He always had the crushed coral in the back. he had a bit of a rough time with his wife so he left the tank to stand for about six months so that is why it looks like this. The display tank has sand in it.

like i said I have just started this hobby and I would just like to say that with the amount of help i have recieved in just a couple of hours from everyone I am very glad i started this and can see that there is help out there.

To start off with, I would recommend removing all of the floss and crushed coral in the back compartments, but not all at once, take out about a cupful a day. The reason for removing this stuff is because it can harbour nitrates and phosphates which result in an increase in algae growth. If you want to use filter floss then you would have to clean it every day or 2nd day, I never use floss but you can use it occasionally to 'polish' the water to remove floating organics. The same goes for the crushed coral, anything bigger than sugar grain size is notorious for collecting detritus and gunk which again causes your nitrates to increase. So take it all out but do it over a period of about a week. At the same time, pull off as much of the long algae that you can and scrape off all of that stuff on the back glass, use a net or a syphon to suck it out as you remove it. Cut down your lighting hours to 6 hours a day.

Do you know how old the lights are? They may need to be replaced as ageing lights tend to shift in spectrum and can also fuel algal growth.

Thanks a lot
I will try everything you said and give feedback on what it is doing through the week. Must i then replace the Coral with anything or just leave those two tanks open, once agin thanks for all the great advise and help.

I'm not to clued up on the "engine room" of a Tank, but I would say small RL pieces/rubble with Filter Floss on top...? Someone help incase I'm wrong...maybe try and then get a "sump" underneath...basic design...?...If budget allows...

Chamber 1 is the Skimmer Chamber ..... the size of this chamber is dictated by either the size of your current skimmer or the size of a proposed skimmer upgrade.

Chamber 3 is the return chamber and should be big enough to accommodate the return pump, usually this chamber can also host a chemical filter such as a carbon filter.

Chamber 2 is simply the biggest that it can be, and must be able to have a sand bed of at least 15cm in depth, preferably 18cm.